The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love With the God Jesus Knows (The Apprentice Series)<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0830835318\")
<\/strong><\/em> , is guiding his readers into a wholesome narrative about God. And one of the wholesome narratives is that\u2026<\/p>\nGod is self-sacrificing.<\/p>\n
Smith tells a story about his sister, who couldn\u2019t quite comprehend why Christians are so tied into the cross. It seems almost child abuse to her and she wondered why God couldn\u2019t just forgive humans out of grace.<\/p>\n
The false narrative is that of karma: good deeds, good life; bad deeds, bad life.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
Jesus\u2019 narrative: God works his way to us. Smith\u2019s approach is to imagine a conversation between himself and Athanasius who is the \u201cdoctor of incarnation.\u201d Athanasius said the problem was human corruption and death. The divine dilemma is to be true to God\u2019s nature and to God\u2019s promise and still to forgive and re-create life. Jesus surrenders his life to our life and experiences our life and lives our life and dies our death in order to bring us out the other side in the new life of resurrection.<\/p>\n
God, in Who God Is, is self-surrender within the Trinity and giving himself for \u2014 with, instead of, and for the benefit of \u2014 humans is the only way God can love. So, he entered into our condition in order to make us what God wanted us to be. What more could God have done, Smith asks, than to die for us?<\/p>\n
For an exercise, Smith suggests reading the Gospel of John.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It all begins with God \u2014 what we think about God shapes what we think about ourselves and those around us and our world. It begins with God. What is our \u201cnarrative\u201d of God? What are the narratives that hinder our perception and life in God? James Bryan Smith, in The Good and Beautiful God: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[337],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology"],"yoast_head":"\n
Beginning with God 7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It all begins with God -- what we think about God shapes what we think about ourselves and those around us and our world. It begins with God. What is our\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/07\/23\/beginning-with-god-7\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beginning with God 7\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It all begins with God -- what we think about God shapes what we think about ourselves and those around us and our world. It begins with God. 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<\/span>It all begins with God \u2014 what we think about God shapes what we think about ourselves and those around us and our world. It begins with God. What is our \u201cnarrative\u201d of God? What are the narratives that hinder our perception and life in God?<\/p>\n